Write the depot procedure

By the end of this task, you will be able to turn raw conversational notes into a procedure people will actually follow, written for the shift that has to follow it — and to recognise what in those notes must not travel with it.

Your situation

The same late drop gets two different answers depending on who is on the dock. Christie holds it for the next morning. Diego takes anything up to 17:30 and works it if the line is quiet. Neither is wrong, because nobody ever wrote down which one is right.

Grady Archie wants a rule before the next peak, and he wants it short. His words: the last procedure from region ran eleven pages and nobody read past the first.

Your notes are raw. You wrote down what three supervisors told you over two weeks, including things about a colleague on medical leave and a manager's opinion of a named supervisor. None of that belongs in a document the whole depot can open.

Files you'll use

How to read the prompts

Each prompt below is one block you can copy whole. The # lines are labels, not instructions — they mark where the prompt stops setting the goal and starts giving the context, the sources, and the expectations. Copying them along with the prompt does no harm.

Those four moves, in that order, are what makes a prompt work. Use the same shape when you write your own.

Steps

1. Open Word and attach the depot notes.

2. Draft the procedure.

   goal

   Turn these rough depot notes into a standard operating procedure.

   context

   The Calgary team has been handling late customer drops differently on every shift. The notes are what three supervisors told me over two weeks.

   sources

   Use only the attached depot notes.

   expectations

   A numbered procedure with a purpose, who it applies to, the steps in order, and what to do when a step cannot be completed. Keep anything the notes do not actually establish out of it.

3. Rewrite it for the people who have to use it, not the people who approve it.

   goal

   Rewrite this procedure for the people who have to follow it at six in the morning.

   context

   The readers are dock supervisors and sorters, not managers. Some read it on a phone in a cold building before their shift starts.

   sources

   My draft procedure.

   expectations

   Short sentences, one instruction per step, plain words instead of policy language. Keep every number and every cut-off time exactly as it is. Tell me which steps are still too abstract to act on.

4. Now check what should never have been in scope.

   goal

   Tell me what in these notes should not go into a document the whole depot can open.

   context

   The notes are raw. I wrote down what supervisors said, including things about individual people and about an ongoing absence.

   sources

   The depot notes and my procedure.

   expectations

   List anything naming an individual, describing someone’s performance, or touching an absence or a health matter. For each one, say whether it belongs somewhere else or nowhere. Do not repeat the sensitive detail back to me in the answer.

5. Add the case the procedure does not yet cover — which is the one that caused all of this.

   goal

   Add the exception path to this procedure.

   context

   The procedure covers the normal case. What it does not say is what happens when the customer misses the cut-off anyway, which is the situation that created the problem in the first place.

   sources

   The procedure.

   expectations

   One section. What the supervisor does, who they tell, what gets recorded, and what the customer is told. Name the point at which it stops being a depot decision and becomes mine.

6. Save it at one page. If it runs longer, cut a step rather than shrinking the type.

Check your work

• One page, numbered steps, one instruction per step.
• The cut-off time appears exactly as the findings state it.
• Nothing names an individual or describes anyone's performance.
• Nothing references a colleague's absence.
• The exception path says who to tell and what gets recorded.
• The point at which it stops being a depot decision is named.

Stretch prompts

Starting out — get the skeleton:

Turn these notes into a numbered procedure with a purpose, who
it applies to, and the steps in order.

Comfortable — test it against reality:

Walk through this procedure as a supervisor whose truck arrives
at 17:05 on a Friday with the line already backed up. Where does
it stop giving me an answer?

Confident — write the job aid:

Turn this procedure into a single card that can be laminated and
put on the dock wall. Six lines maximum, no policy language, and
the escalation number on it.